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To: safisoft
Wow. Your history gets wilder and wilder. You need to get out more. You think Luther invented the ideas of Reformation? Truth be told, the excesses of the Papacy from 1200 to 1500 had a greater effect.

You're confusing the sins of men who failed to live the teachings of the Catholic Church and doctrines of the Catholic Church. Martin Luther's goal of reforming the corruption within the Church was not a new idea, as St. Francis of Assisi and St. Ignatius of Loyola later became advocates of. No Catholic should have a problem with the fact that there were some terrible sinners in the Church and that they needed to mend their ways. But that wasn't the end of Martin Luther's mission. He argued against Church doctrine, not just sins of men within the Church. When he argued against doctrine, he presupposed his own authority to supercede that of every Church council before him. He went against 1500 years of Christian theology originating from the very first Christians and that was the Church's problem. If Martin Luther hadn't been in theological heresy, he might have become a Saint within the Church for his attempts to rectify the sinner within, but such was not Luther's sole intent.

Seriously, study the history of Christianity and you will find that, apart from officially denounced heretics, no one believed in the theology taught by Martin Luther prior to his reformation.

In the words of St. Augustine in the 5th Century: "I would not believe in the Truth of the Gospels if it were not for the authority of the Catholic Church."

Right there, from one of Christianity's most brilliant theologians, is a clear rebuttal to Martin Luther's sola scriptura and there are plenty more against him. The fact of the matter is that Christianity prior to Martin Luther most definitely was not in line with Protestant theology.
140 posted on 09/28/2005 3:48:06 PM PDT by mike182d ("Let fly the white flag of war." - Zapp Brannigan)
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To: mike182d
I am a student of the history of Christianity, but I am not an admirer of Augustine, Ignatius, or Luther.

I have particular disgust for such men because of their vitriol against all things Jewish. Their wild abandon of the Hebrew Scriptures led to their disloyalty, and shameful repudiation of the family of the Messiah they CLAIMED to follow.

BTW, I am not Jewish.
144 posted on 09/28/2005 4:07:34 PM PDT by safisoft (Give me Torah!)
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